Time of the Twins: Dragonlance: Legends, Book 1

Sequestered in the blackness of the dreaded Tower of High Sorcery in Palanthas, surrounded by nameless creatures of evil, Raistlin Majere weaves a plan to conquer the darkness - to bring it under his control. Crysania, a beautiful and devoted cleric of Paladine, tries to use her faith to lead Raistlin from the darkness. She is blind to his shadowed designs, and he draws her slowly into his neatly woven trap. Made aware of Raistlin’s plan, a distraught Caramon travels back in time to the doomed city of Istar in the days before the Cataclysm.

Dragons of Autumn Twilight: Dragonlance: Chronicles, Book 1

Lifelong friends, they went their separate ways. Now they are together again, though each holds secrets from the others in his heart. They speak of a world shadowed with rumors of war. They speak of tales of strange monsters, creatures of myth, creatures of legend. They do not speak of their secrets. Not then. Not until a chance encounter with a beautiful, sorrowful woman, who bears a magical crystal staff, draws the companions deeper into the shadows, forever changing their lives and shaping the fate of the world.

The Second Generation

Years have passed since the end of the War of the Lance. The people of Ansalon have rebuilt their lives, their houses, their families. The Companions of the Lance, too, have returned to their homes, raising children and putting the days of their heroic deeds behind them. But peace on Krynn comes at a price. The forces of darkness are ever vigilant, searching for ways to erode the balance of power and take control. When subtle changes begin to permeate the fragile peace, new lives are drawn into the web of fate woven around all the races.

The Magic of Krynn: Dragonlance Tales, Vol. 1

Is Raistlin truly dead? The answer lies in the new Dragonlance novella by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, which gazes into the future of Caramon and his mage-son, and into the dark nether-past of Raistlin. Tales of sea monsters, dark elves, ice bears, hideous hydra-headed serpents, and loathsome draconian troops.

Further adventures of the kender Tas; the innkeepr Otic and young Tika; the dwarf Flint and Tanis, leader of the companions; Caramon and Raistlin, twin brothers, one, a genial warrior, the other, a sickly magician and scholar.

Publisher's Summary

Defying the fate that claimed his evil predecessor, Raistlin opens the Portal to the Abyss and passes through. With Crysania at his side, he engages the Queen of Darkness in a battle for the ultimate prize - a seat among the gods.

At the same time, Caramon and Tasslehoff are transported to the future. There they come to understand the consequences of Raistlin’s quest - and Caramon at last realizes the painful sacrifice he must make to prevent his brother’s success. Old friends and strange allies come together to aid him, but Caramon must take the last, greatest step alone. The step into the Abyss.

In an earlier review of the first two books of the series, I mentioned that I would, indeed, NOT purchase the third installment of the audiobook versions of Legends, simply because of the narrator. I folded, due to the fact that my commute is long, I have been listening from Chronicles onward during the drive, and I am addicted to the story - might as well finish the whole thing out. That said, the narration may, in fact, be more the cause of my elevated blood pressure and "road rage" than the actual traffic...more on that momentarily.

Overview - The Audiobook:

This is, in my opinion, a great ending to the story. I will not expound much here (to avoid spoilers for those who have yet to listen/read the book), other than to say that, once again, Weis and Hickman masterfully draw everything to a conclusion, not only ending the tale on a poignant and well-crafted note that follows from everything that came before (it is often the case, in my experience, that some conclusions forget their origins, particularly when, at least at the time they are written, the author(s) feel(s) it will be the last "word" on the matter (the authors, in the "Annotated Legends" admit they thought this would be the last book written about Krynn and the characters we have come to love), and he or she (or they, in this case) is/are trying to wrap everything up, although "possibilities" may still be rolling around in the mind; the question of how to end it all, and timing for ending, publishing, and so on (and this book was written in less than a month, according to Weis) has the pressure on), but, even with a firm conclusion, also leaves the reader with enough "unanswered" about the characters and the world, that the reader can "develop" their own future of Krynn and what happens after (if one stops here, of course - as mentioned, no other books had been planned at this point). Anyway, a great way to wrap things up.

Overview - The Series, Chronicles through Legends:

As I have stated in earlier reviews, the original, 6-book story is, in my opinion, one of the absolute best in fantasy. Many would put Tolkien at the top of the Fantasy Genre ladder, perhaps making room for C.S. Lewis to join him (they did, after all, meet for tea to discuss ideas in a little public house just beyond the Oxford campus) and, it is true, most of what we now consider fantasy was born from the works of Tolkien (and/or Lewis) - something admitted frequently by Gary Gygax and several of the other creators/early minds of TSR (writers/creators of Dungeons and Dragons/ AD&D - from whence, of course, came the overarching framework of the Dragonlance world) - but I would put the team of Weis and Hickman not only "up there" with these greats in their abilities to weave a tale, but perhaps even exceeding their forebears in their joint ability to make the reader identify with their characters.

Indeed, we all came to love Bilbo, Gandalf, Thorin, Frodo, Sam, and so on, but we never really KNEW any of them. In the Dragonlance series, we not only come to love, hate (or love to hate/hate to love) the characters - nearly all of them, in fact, if not indeed all - but to KNOW them: know their hopes, fears, feelings, darkness, light, strengths, failings, and so on; in short, their overall humanity (howevermuch the elves, dwarves, kender, and other races of Krynn might be offended by that statement!). Weis and Hickman have created a world and the characters and peoples within that we absolutely do not want to leave! I have read many a fantasy novel - and I read Chronicles and Legends as both a kid and as an adult and college professor - and I can safely state that, in my opinion, the Dragonlance series (at least these first 6) are the ONLY ones that have ever made me feel that way.

Overview - The Narrator, Ax Norman:

I have said the same thing since "Time of the Twins:" listener/buyer, beware! Even with all I have praised the series for and all I have praised the authors for, Ax Norman is the one variable that can take away from all of the magic and wonder of Krynn! Everyone sounds the same, and every instance - tragic, exciting, dull, romantic - is treated, in largest part, with the same tone, rhythm, pace, and meter, making what is supposed to be poignant or otherwise important seem mundane.

True, not every narrator gets in and "performs" an audiobook, and though I admittedly prefer those who do, even those others whom I have heard thus far who do not perform, at least seem to try and make some distinction between characters, events, and moods. Raistlin, the archmage whose dark and ambitious soul, and who we are meant to simultaneously admire and loathe, for example, never - according to the books - speaks above a calm-ish, "indoor" voice, indeed rarely above more than an audible whisper except when he is angry, giving a command, or lost in his magic, yet the whiny, sophomoric voice of Norman - the one used for everyone - drains Raistlin of the darkness, the mystery, and so on. It is ONLY through the mastery of the authors that we know what mood is SUPPOSED to be set or what a character is SUPPOSED to be doing or thinking.

Norman nearly robs the series of all that is good about it, through his dry and monotonous reading - not expressing - of the story.

And, as I have mentioned before: Norman, if you are going to slaughter the pronunciation of character and place names, the names of the moons and continents, and even various words found in the English language, AT LEAST BE CONSISTENT!!!

For example, our beloved kender, TASSlehoff Burfoot: when using his full name, Norman pronounces it, indeed TASS (rhyming with "glass")-lehoff, and even calls him "Tas" (again, rhyming with "glass") once or twice, but then proceeds with "TOSS" or even "TAHZ" throughout the rest of the series. And, is the moon Sola-NAH-ri, or Sola- NAIR-i? Because, he uses both even within the same paragraph...is it Fiz-BAN, Fiz-BIN, or Fiz-BAHN? RAStlin or RAIStlin? DAY-as, or DIE-as (for dais)?

The reading is absolutely RIFE with these pronunciation faux pas, again, multiple ways of saying the same words, even within the same sentence, let alone paragraphs...

One last word: I will pay VERY close attention to who the narrator is from now on, and will always listen to the sample prior to purchasing any other audiobook. Moreover, if even my favorite book is made avaialbel, but is narrated by Ax Norman, I will run screaming the other way! Stick to commercials and stage, Ax - leave audiobook narrating to, well, ANYONE else...

9 of 9 people found this review helpful

Michael

25/11/15

Overall

Story

"worst narrator of all time."

Ax Norman completely ruins anything he narrates. He can barely read apparently, as not only does he mispronounce names, but standard English words as well.

When someone shouts in the book, Norman does some kind of whispered shout that an 8 year old does when playing with action figures. It is absolutely cringe worthy.

Tasslehof or "Tas" for short, is not pronounced "Tahz" Fizban is not pronounced "fizz-bon"Dewar is not pronounced "doer" as in evil-doerPaladine is not pronounced Paladin

This is only a tiny portion of the embarrassment known as Ax Norman. beware, if you purchase, you'll be gritting your teeth through some parts.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Jonathan Taylor

19/05/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"Bad narrator, great story"

Very well written story, with a horrible narrator. Unfortunate that they went with him for the whole series

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

VJC3

17/04/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"Short and the narrator was awful."

if you went through the hero's of the Lance series this series is a great add-on if you can get past Axe Norman.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

John

17/09/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"great book poor performance"

I really love the book as well as a series however, the individual reading the book really needs to learn the characters proper names and places, and should truly practice a great deal more before ever submitting another book that someone will have to suffer through.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Amazon Customer

9/07/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Great book bad narration."

Love these books, but the guy who narrated this series was horrible.

Constantly mispronounced names and places.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Tom Hiltbrunn

8/11/14

Overall

Performance

Story

"Great Story! Hate the Narrater."

Would you consider the audio edition of Test of the Twins to be better than the print version?

I am not sure. I haven't read the print version.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I would have to say Caroman. I loved seeing him grow as a character in the story.

What didn’t you like about Ax Norman’s performance?

I really enjoyed Paul Boehmer's performance and Ax's was very sub par in comparison. It was difficult to get used to the change. He did well if these stories were completely separate, but since they weren't... It frustrated me that not even the pronunciation was consistent from the original trilogy to this one.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The Twins

Any additional comments?

perhaps hate is a strong word but the narration really bothered me. I only continued to listen because i loved the story so much. He is a good storyteller, I just wish they had kept the original narrator from the previous trilogy

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Scott

28/06/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"these books never disappoint me"

love all these books have read almost every single one of them I have read this series about 3 times

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Robert Johnston

1/06/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"Pronounce Tas' name properly..."

I've read most of the Dragonlance stories multiple times since I was a kid. Listening to this book, while mostly enjoyable, was quite frustrating whenever the narrator would pronounce Tas' name to sound like 'paws' or 'Jaws' vs. 'lass'. His name is Tasslehoff... Tassle... TAS. His friends wouldn't have then pronounced his nick-name 'Taws'... A character as important as Tas (and as often as it was said) should have his name pronounced properly. I'm somewhat new to the AudioBook world, but I'd have ensured whoever was narrating would know the proper pronunciation.

That said, I did find out I'd been pronouncing Par-Salian's name wrong to myself all these years. I'd been pronouncing it Par-Silan.

Overall, I'm glad I was able to get back to The Twins and the rest of the Dragonlance crew.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Kay

16/03/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"Great story, poor narration."

This is one of my favorite series. The narration is poor though. If I hadn't read the books prior to the listening, I don't know if I could have stood the narration. Little to no difference in character voices and mis-pronouncement of the names is enough to make you cringe.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

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andy

3/09/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"love this book ... what a great series ."

love this series . system has great fun and the story is simple and great

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

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